Customer Reviews

Mousetrap

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

I usually groan when my first grader pulls out this game, because I know pandemonium will follow -- but it's always a lot of fun!!!!
This game needs to be heavily supervised. Even if you child can read (and kids on the younder end of the spectrum won't be able to), assembling the mousetrap requires a certain amount of fine motor skills and an understanding of how things fit together. My son has yet to play it with a friend without serious assistance! Even when I play if with him, it is a crisis if my younger child is around. He is too young to play the game, but he loves to play with it and work the trap -- usually right in the middle of the game!
Notwithstanding all of this, the game is a blast. It's a good introduction to engineering concepts. Most board games are pretty similar -- you go around the board and whoever gets to the end first wins. This isn't that simple - you don't know who is going to win until the end. Furthermore, the best fun of the game is the process of reaching the end, since most turns involve a child adding another piece onto the trap.
My only real complaint about the game is that it needs to be sturdier. My board is taped together, and I am about to order a replacement thing-a-majig (that's really the name of the piece) from Hasbro.
If you don't mind supervising the game, it's a great game.

I know that "Mousetrap" is a game in which players take turns trying to capture an opponent's mice, but I am going to take a radical position and say the whole point here is to build this Rube Goldberg version of the proverbial "better mousetrap" and get it to work. Yes, the first time or two that you play this with your kids you can follow the rules and declare a winner. But from then on the fun is just putting this contraption together and getting it to work. The important thing here is that they understand the whole idea of a "Rube Goldberg machine" (he was the inspiration for this toy, even if he does not get the actual credit) and to appreciate the idea of taking a simple every-day real-life problem such as catching a mouse and solving it with a complicated mechanical solution such as what we have here, where you begin with a shoe kicking a bucket and eventually, if everything works correctly, ends with trapping a mouse.
This is a game where the way it really works is that young kids want to learn how to put the "Mousetrap" together and get it to work. After they master that skill they will become bored with it, at which point you simply discover some new kids who have yet to be exposed to this unique, classic game. There are certain games that every kid should be exposed to and "Mousetrap" is on that short list of classics.

Parents or playmates, who give unfavorable reviews of Mousetrap, have expectations beyond reality. This is a family game--at least for the first 3 to 4 games. Play as a family, at first, helping your children learn to assemble the "trap". New games and toys are especially more fun if a parent(s) participate in learning game rules and strategy. How fun it is when 1 of my 4 children challenge me to a game I have taught him/her to play. I usually get smeared! A little bit of initial instruction and patience will take you, as a parent, a long way. The investment will pay off as the kids challenge other friends to play along. In return, Mom sips her coffee and enjoys the activity.

A piece broke during assembly (everything made of flimsy plastic). I glued it back together with a little J.B. Weld and tried again. Well, as a game it's completely worthless. But my 5 yr. old and 7 yr. old boys get some amusement out of playing with the assembled contraption, although it's very frustrating to them because it's so flimsy it generally doesn't work. Supposedly the little man is intended to be catapulted into the pool but that never happens, so the mousetrap "basket" rarely comes down. There must be better things to spend money on than this.

Several other reviewers have commented that Mousetrap is all about the contraption: I agree. The contraption has a certain charm, if you can tolerate the frustration of occasions when it just won't work. But playing it as a game holds little interest; instead, I, with some help from the kids, put the contraption together, and then the kids try triggering it off (lots!) of times -- then we're done. Whether you really like Mousetrap, or despise it, will probably depend on whether the Rube Goldberg aspect of the Mousetrap charms you or leaves you cold, and whether you enjoy putting all the pieces together (and then the suspense of whether or not you can actually get it working that day).

For a similar-in-spirit contraption incorporated into a much better playing game, take a look at the Ratatouille Kitchen Quake game, DISNEY PIXAR RATATOUILLE KITCHEN QUAKE GAME.

Mousetrap (M) vs. Ratatouille (R)

Contraption theme
M: Nostalgic (for those of us who grew up with it); wild Rube Goldberg variety of parts.
R: Limited to kitchen utensils, to fit in well with Ratatouille movie.

Contraption number of individual parts:
M: about 25
R: about 15
Note that the contraptions have the same sort of underlying structure; the difference is that in Mousetrap things like "bases" are constructed from lots of separate parts, where the analogous piece in Ratatouille would have an integral base. So the overall contraption in Ratatouille doesn't really seem less complex or interesting -- but the construction has fewer pieces/is simpler.

Stage when construction of contraption occurs:
M: During the game (if you actually play the game, which we almost never do, but instead merely build and play with the contraption).
R: As part of game setup, before the game itself.

Reliable operation of contraption:
M: This can be frustrating...
R: Fewer pieces, which fit into plastic mounts in the game board, seems to give better reliability. To retain the "charm" of uncertainty of operation, Ratatouille actually has two initial trigger buttons: a reliable button used when triggering ingredient launches, and an unreliable button used when triggering the contraption to (possibly) whack opponent pawns off their current position on the playing board.

Playing pawn interaction with contraption:
M: Only at end-stage of game, when mice pawns get "caught" by the falling cage which is the last piece of the contraption.
R: Recurs throughout the game -- Remy pawns climb onto the contraption at two different points of the game path, putting them in danger of getting dislodged (and having to move backwards to penalty spaces) if the contraption gets triggered, and at various other game board positions Remy pawns are in danger of getting whacked out of position by contraption moving parts if the contraption gets triggered by an opponent. And attempted triggering of the contraption (this is the unreliable button) happens a lot, both when any player passes Chef Skinner board squares, or when a player's attempt to collect an ingredient instead turns up Chef Skinner. Also, Remy pawns collect and actually carry (between the little pawn paws, on top of the pawn head) ingredient disks which eventually are placed in the spoon launcher part of the contraption (and one hopes launched into the soup pot when the contraption is triggered). (This increased interaction is one of my favorite improvements in Ratatouille over Mousetrap; as a kid, it was unsatisfactory to me that the Mousetrap mice pawns didn't have more of a role to play in contraption operation.)

Collection of cheese (M) vs. ingredients (R) aspect:
M: Not interesting.
R: Kind of fun: there's a "memory game" aspect to the collection of the ingredients.

End-game:
M: Once players get to the final loop, they're stuck there going around and around -- boring.
R: There's a "launching ring" to get a chance to launch your current ingredient, but then you set off around the whole board path again -- wheee! First player to collect two ingredients and get them both launched into the soup pot wins.

What's fun:
M: Building the contraption (if such building is to your taste); operating the contraption (if it's not too frustrating).
R: Setting up the contraption (though this is somewhat simplified from Mousetrap); operating the contraption; playing the game.

It took my 11 year old and my 8 year old over an hour to set the game up(with alot of help from me)Every time you bump the board the whole thing falls apart so you have to spend about 15 minutes trying to put it back together. As for gameplay- what gameplay- you're so busy trying to keep the thing together you don't get to play the game. Also if you lose just one of those little pieces the whole game is shot. This quickly went into the trash- don't waste your money!

My 6-year-old daughter was delighted to receive this game for Christmas. I have to admit, it looked like it would be fun to watch the whole contraption work.

Apparently, the poor design and flimsy construction are somewhat intentional - i.e., the mousetrap isn't SUPPOSED to work all the time. See, Mr. or Ms. Consumer, that's part of the fun!!! Yeah... But it was excruciating to try and get any one part of it to work at all. First, a little hand crank is supposed to propel a boot into the bucket holding Steel Ball #1. As my daughter turned the plastic hand crank in earnest, the gear teeth slipped and the whole mechanism bent under her crushing 6-year-old grip. The boot remained motionless, but in her attempt to rotate the crank, my daughter inadvertently moved the game board - and the slight motion sent Steel Ball #1 through its zany maze. Fortunately, because the mechanism that sets off Steel Ball #2 is so poorly designed, Steel Ball #2 just sat motionless on its perch. Family fun a-plenty.

On our next attempt, with my wife holding the hand crank mechanism and game board firmly in position, my daughter was able to turn the crank without breaking anything. The boot kicked the bucket (yeah!!), Steel Ball #1 dropped out (all right!!!) and went through its maze (woo hoo!!!). But again, it failed to trip Steel Ball #2, so that was the end of that. We finally gave up and operated the second half of the game manually so my daughter could see it work, at least.

When the moon is just right, the stars align and you wiggle the game board at the right moment - but not too much, 'cause then you will set off the mousetrap or break off some flimsy piece - it almost works like it is supposed to. Otherwise, keep your blood pressure medication on hand.

Maybe the educational value is in seeing how poor design and construction can lead to product failure...?

Forty-five years ago this toy was made with high quality parts, and worked every time. Now, it cannot work because it no longer includes a necessary spring, and the shoddiness of the parts makes the contraption too loose to function.

My 4 year old saw this on t.v and had to have it.My parents never bought it for me when I was a kid,now I know why.It takes forever to set up and evey time you just tap the game the trap falls and you have to reset it.DON'T waste your money!

This is a great game for kids and one that older people can appreciate as well. Some people don't like this game because it takes a while to set up, but to me that is the whole fun of the game. When I was younger I use to set it up and just set off the trap to watch it. The game play is just your run of the mill roll the dice and move but the trap makes this one not to miss.